Bob Bland, a founder of the Women’s March on Washington.
Photograph: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen

Daphne Constantinides, an 18-year-old rising college freshman from Wyoming, Ohio, is a spoken word poet, first-generation daughter of Filipino and Greek immigrants and delegate to the International Congress of Youth Voices. As a self-described “strong, empowered woman of color”, she is passionate about insisting that feminism confront its failures toward women of color.

Earlier this week, she spoke with Bob Bland, one of the founders of the Women’s March on Washington about the past, present and future of feminism. The following is a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Constantinides: How did you define feminism as an 18 year old and how do you define it now?

Bland: I actually didn’t know a lot about feminism until I did the Women’s March. I identify as a fashion designer. I identify as a manufacturer, an entrepreneur, and as a mother. But, up until the Women’s March, I hadn’t gotten an opportunity in life to actually be educated on the history of feminism or really even had any meaningful conversations about it with people.

So when I found out that feminism was really about the basic, root premise that everyone deserves equal rights and full autonomy, I was like, “Yeah, this is awesome.” This is not at all what I thought. I think the right has very effectively smeared feminism over the last 30 years to be exclusively about equal pay and reproductive health rights. It’s about every issue that affects women and those who identify with the feminine.

I had a learning curve around the work of Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw and other incredible women of color who have had this intersectional feminist analysis for decades. That sort of work is something that I’m learning along with the rest of the nation as we go through this process. All I did was suggest that we march on Washington on inauguration weekend.

'We are the opposite of self-absorbed': what everyone gets wrong about Generation Z

Read more

Constantinides: I’m from Cincinnati where there was a disagreement between Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March. Black Lives Matter wanted to change the 2018 Women’s March theme, “Hear Our Votes”, to “Hear Our Voice”. They were speaking to the fact that not everyone has a vote depending on immigration status, identification complication, past criminal convictions. When they approached leadership about changing it, they were rejected.

I remembered that women of color, specifically black women, weren’t given the right to vote until the 1950s. My sister, who was 15, and I, at 17, couldn’t vote and we felt a little disconnected to the movement because it was so focused on women using their vote and going to the polls. I know that my friends, who were women of color, were feeling discouraged after the conflict. I was too.

Were there any criticisms of the Women’s March that you think were valid?

Bland: I think every criticism is valid because the Women’s March is only reflective of society at anytime. We’re not a monolith. But, we do need to make sure that everyone organizing has made a commitment to address their own biases and prejudices, to really, really take to heart the unity principles we’re rooted in.

There are a lot of different feelings on the power of voting or not. I didn’t know, until I started working in this field, that the 19th amendment wasn’t the end. There was still a tremendous amount of work to be done. I’m sure that most white women stopped thinking about it, and they weren’t there for their black sisters.

It’s something that we need to address as a movement so that we can actually move forward together. I have tremendous hope in your generation. My generation, the millennials, we’re okay. But, I really consider us to be just a bridge. Our full commitment is to clear the path of all the different obstructions that your generation will face so that you can use your wokeness.

Constantinides: I’m from a town outside Cincinnati, a predominantly white community. A lot of the girls who went to my school were white and feminists. My mom, who is a Filipino immigrant, told me that the threat of Donald Trump and his hatred was imposing, but it was nothing new to women of color. Sometimes I feel that in the mainstream feminist movement, there are a lot of white feminists coming out and saying a lot of things that women of color have been saying for a long time now.

I was talking to my friend once and she told me, “All women are second-class citizens.” I realized her struggles as a woman weren’t the same as my struggles as a woman because the whole intersection thing. I am a woman of color. She doesn’t have deal with racism, she just has to deal with being a woman.

Especially with being Asian, it’s different for me. We’re supposed to assimilate easier than any other minority. But, the fact that I look foreign and not white, it makes me sympathize with other women of color. I feel discouraged sometimes because women of colors needs are sometimes pushed to the side. Sometimes I do feel like the feminist movement has been hijacked by white middle class women.

The upside of Trump's election: it inspired my generation to fight back

Read more

So, how do you think Women’s March can be more conscious of the presence of women of color, go away from white feminism, and towards intersectionality?

Bland: It starts with white people who do know about the history holding ourselves personally and collectively accountable. Then making it our mission to educate other white people in ways that they’re showing up in the world in problematic ways.

For Women’s March, we’ve had a couple of toolkits that we’ve put out on holidays around how to use family gatherings to have hard conversations about racism. I remember one of my friends was like, “Leave it to white people. White people are the only people who need a toolkit to freaking talk to their families.” And it’s true. There are just so many layers of ignorance and denial that are built into white culture to justify what we’ve been doing to oppress people of color, or people who aren’t in the mainstream.

Constantinides: I definitely think that there has been a lack of intersectionality. There’s also been exclusivity, especially towards women of color. I myself identify as a feminist because I want to change that. I want move towards having those conversations, like what we’re having now to make it for all women and for everyone.

Bland: Women’s March is not a monolith. We are just a reflection of the nation, so we’re going to be as problematic. But what I am going to ask is that we all be a part of this and have an active role in this. We need to be part of the change that we need. We’re not going to get anything done from the sideline. Whether you’re using your voice or your vote – preferably both – we should bring about change. We’re the ones who are defining feminism.